There were no more WhatsApp messages during holidays and afterwork hours, dull work that other departments didn’t appreciate and exaggerating eschewal of people closed to the boss. Normality. Something assumed to be a part of the daily life but it felt ages to take back in shape.

It’s been a duration of streamlining. Within a year, two-third of staff left. New blood joined in with a different combination of the team. The unit was repositioned with a fresh vision. Roles and functions were aligned. It was like a pool of messy legos being rebuilt to be a shinny house with clear purposes. Whether the context affected human beings or vice versa, Stephenie didn’t waste the time anymore to explore the connection.

It took decades to set up solid structures and one only needed a few minutes to tear them apart. No matter how much folks were taught to treasure the effort made for certain accomplishment, it was inevitable to go through the construction, deconstruction then reorganization routine. The system itself was permanent, but how a variety of people with their assorted mindsets mastered it would produce ten thousand kinds of outcomes.

Stephenie didn’t mind the banal life. What she didn’t want to handle was drama at work. For her, a job was the assurance of some steadiness, so that she could made her dream come true outside of the uncreative space. She set her sight on opening a dance studio one day and introduce the concept of the mind body connection.

Now going back on the right track, what occurred in the past still induced discomfort. She could only pray for the best, wishing the same scuffle wouldn’t happen again. But from time to time, she did reflect the what if. What would she respond if the catastrophe reran itself?

Above all, Stephenie envisioned herself a more mighty figure, taking a deep breath with the broadened body containing anxiety, panics and frustration. Let the jinx swamp her. She would stay still inside of a maelstrom like authorizing a camera to capture those frozen moments.

When the shake-up finished, it’d be gone. The trick was no one has ever known how long it would last. After that, Stephenie was still Stephenie. Her face remained unchanged. Her fists moved again. Her soul awoke. Her internal self was revamped. As active as the birds in spring, her mind flied around to enjoy the vast blue sky.

No one discussed what took place before. A mode of amnesia alike. The ecology just recovered to its usual form. The alteration kept rolling until the lecture of how to live was completed.

Stephenie’s pleasant daydream went far and wide. She had no plan to stop it. But then it was interrupted with a piece of abrupt update.

Sam left the world.